Streamlined Distribution Workflow

Sage MAS 500 ERP users will experience a significant increase in productivity through animproved sales order workflow in version 7.0. A new streamlined grid-based entry provides amore heads-down approach to order processing. Sage MAS 500 7.0 will allow organizations totailor the sales order entry interface to match their internal procedures and guidelines through anew built-in customization interface where fields can be added and moved by company, group,user, or site—offering complete flexibility and control.

As an extension to sales order processing, version 7.0 has fortified the pick, pack, and shipcapabilities of Sage MAS 500 with new features such as auto-generating serial numbers andshipments as well as an improved StarShip interface that eliminates the need for warehousepersonnel to manually enter package dimensions. These features and many more will provideboth distributors and manufacturers the tools they need to increase profits and maximize theirmost valuable resource—their employees.

Sales Order Entry EnhancementsSTREAMLINED DROP-SHIP PROCESSING

The entire drop-shipment process within Sales Order is streamlined in Version 7.0. You will beable to select the Purchase-from Vendor in Sales Order Entry and can both acknowledge andpick drop-ship orders. A new multi-purpose Drop Ship report will provide timely data about yourdrop shipments.

GROSS PROFIT DISPLAY

Version 7.0 will display the calculated gross profit for each line on an order, and can warn userswhen profit dips below your acceptable level. You can elect to use the Average, Last, Standard,Replacement, or Landed Cost as the basis for the calculation.

SIGNIFICANT NEW FEATURES

AND BENEFITS

In an age where new trends and risingcosts can develop overnight, you expectmore out of your business system than everbefore to quickly solve issues and gainevery possible advantage. With the 7.0release of Sage MAS 500, Sage Softwarehas raised the bar again with a focus ontwo overlying themes: streamlineddistribution workflow and unprecedentedaccess to information. These key areasfurther simplify the ease of use that SageMAS 500 customers have come to knowand expect, while adding functionality thatmakes you more agile and responsive intoday’s fast-paced, service-orientedeconomy.

7.0 ENHANCEMENTS

Continued ▼

Sage MAS 500 version 7.0 provides a customizable grid-based order entry screen that allows organizations to maximize userproductivity while still offering access to advanced features.

ORDER COPY

Sage MAS 500 7.0 adds the ability to copy sales orders, allowingyou to create a new order by copying from an existing order. Anoption allows you to re-price the order to ensure you’re chargingthe customer the proper amounts.

PROMOTIONAL PRICING

Promotional pricing will allow you to configure a date-specificpromotion by Item, Warehouse, Sales Product Line, PurchaseProduct Line, Product Price Group, Primary Vendor, and ProductCategory. Designate either fixed or percentage-based discountsthat are established by price or the quantity ordered.

REAL TIME INVENTORY

For busy distributors, batch processing of transfer shipments,customer shipments, and customer returns slows down the ordercycle. Version 7.0 will remove batch processing from thesefunctions. This will allow you to more quickly and easily enter andupdate sales transactions resulting in accurate inventory levelsthroughout the day.

CUSTOMIZED ORDER ENTRY

Customize Sales Order Entry screens by user, group, company, orsite—choose which fields should be included or excluded from theprimary line item grid entry, as well as which fields should bedelegated to the miscellaneous tab. Plus, columns within the gridentry can be frozen to help you retain visible context as you scrollfrom left to right.

CREDIT MANAGEMENT

Managing customer credit is an important tool for distributors.Sage MAS 500 7.0 adds a new optional credit check routine thatserves to place orders on credit hold as well as lift credit holdsfrom orders for customers with resolved credit issues. The pickingprocess will also identify orders on hold that cannot be picked.

STREAMLINED PICKING

Automatically generate shipments from picking, and skip thepicking confirmation and shipment editing tasks by completingedits for lots, serials, and bins from within picking. Manage manualor automated product substitution within picking. Receivenotifications of ship-complete rule violations for items orcustomers while still in picking. Short picks will be readilyidentifiable to aid decision-making during the picking process.

SHORTEN SERIAL, BIN, AND LOT ENTRY

Simplify your data entry process and reduce the margin foroperator error. You now have the ability to enter a range ofalphanumeric serial numbers, or to continue using single serialnumbers. If you’re looking to expedite repetitive entry against thesame bin or lot number, the 7.0 release retains the values as thedefault during your work session. Ranged entry also extends to themanufacturing modules in Sage MAS 500.

RAPID-ENTRY PACKING AND SHIPMENT PROCESS

Capture more information faster in Edit Shipments. In moments,you can tally the boxes; the quantity and item descriptions foreach box, their tracking numbers, and easily move items betweenboxes and shipments. The data also serves your packing list andbill of lading printouts.

IMPROVED STARSHIP INTEGRATION

Eliminate the need for warehouse personnel to manually enterpackage dimensions during Edit Shipments. With the new cartontable feature, you can predefine the dimensions of all yourstandard packing containers such as boxes, cases, and pallets, andthe dimensions will automatically feed into StarShip. You can alsoflag hazardous materials through the entire distribution process,from order processing to StarShip.

New Warehouse Management Module

A new Warehouse Management Module debuts in version 7.0.The new module focuses on tracking information and processes inthe warehouse and includes some features currently part ofInventory Management. The combined feature set of WarehouseManagement includes:

• Zones in warehouse

• Assign bins to zones for a more efficient warehouse layout

• Reduce the number of trips to bins by pickers

• Enable zones through Sales Order Picking

• Track quantity by bin

• Three-step transfers—select transfer order shipments with salesorder shipments for streamlined processing.

New Business Insights Explorer Module

Building on the success of the popular Business Insights Analyzermodule, Sage MAS 500 introduces the Business Insights Explorer.As the newest member of the Business Insights suite, BusinessInsights Explorer takes inquiry, drill down, drill around, and analysisto a whole new level. You’ll immediately reap benefits from itsextensive set of usability and customization features.

PREVIEW

With the Preview option, you can view key information about aspecific entity such as customer or vendor, plus related transactionheader information such as invoices, vouchers, orders, or projects.Filters can also be applied to any view, restricting the datadisplayed according to user preferences. By selecting a customer,for example, the context of the related view will automaticallychange to only show the rows that apply to that customer. SageMAS 500 is bundled with a series of pre-defined previewrelationships, including customers, vendors, items, warehouses,projects, work orders, and many more.

DRILL INTO

As an extension to the Preview option, the Drill Into option allowsyou to drill around data related to the original records, and changethe primary view and context of Business Insights Explorer to anew set of views. At the same time, context (for example, thespecific customer) is passed from the original starting point to thenew set of views as a filter. For instance, a customer service agentreceives a call from a customer regarding a recent transaction. The agent can Drill Into the customer’s recent shipments or invoicepayments. When the specific invoice is located, the agent mayneed additional information relating to that invoice such as thepayments applied to it. This can be accomplished by Drilling Intothe invoice to find applications against that invoice.

Another powerful feature of the Drill Into option is the ability tonavigate to a related view that contains custom preferences andpre-defined filters. A good example is a view that lists ordersplaced in the last 30 days. This customized view can then be savedfor future use and quick navigation when looking at any customer.

ANALYZE

Now you have the ability to organize, graph, and formatsummarized information within the Sage MAS 500 system. The new Business Insights Explorer module is tightly integrated tothe Business Insights Analyzer module that was introduced inversion 6.3, allowing you to conduct a more detailed study.

Contextual mappings have been configured within both BusinessInsights Explorer and Business Insights Analyzer that allow you tojump directly to specific Analyzer views. In addition to the directlink with Analyzer, custom filters are passed to Analyzer, forcing itsengine to maintain the original Business Insights Explorer context.

MANAGE

The ability to act on information quickly is a critical advantage forany business. With the task management options provided byBusiness Insights Explorer, you have an easy mechanism for quicklyaccessing key Sage MAS 500 tasks for the entity being displayed.Each view contains a set of related tasks. For example, whenviewing a customer, the tasks for updating the customerinformation or creating an order are readily accessible from thesame view.

PERSONALIZE

The customization and personalization features originally pioneeredwith Business Insights Analyzer have continued with BusinessInsights Explorer. You have the same options for sorting, grouping,reorganizing, and renaming columns within the grid in addition tosaving filtered views for future use. Uniquely, custom views can beused within the Explore function so that you can leverage themfrom other related views for navigational purposes.

Manufacturing ImprovementsPHANTOM ROUTING SUPPORT

The number-one request from Sage MAS 500 manufacturingcustomers was to support phantom routings and bills ofmaterial—and Sage Software delivers! A phantom routingrepresents an item that is physically built, but rarely stocked,before being used in the next step or level of manufacturing. Sage MAS 500’s MRP logic will drive requirements straight throughthe phantom items to its components to facilitate the use ofcommon bills of material for engineering and manufacturing.

NEW MRP FORECAST DEMAND SMOOTHING PROCESS

This new process gives you the powerful ability to forecastprojected demand over various inventory periods through one ofsix different methods. You’ll forecast product sales in one set ofeasily defined business periods, while using the data to drive MRPand production in a set of shop floor or production facility workingperiods. The six smoothing methods include Daily, Weekly,Monthly, Quarterly, Annually, and Planning.

ITEM AND WAREHOUSE COSTING

Users will have the ability to mark multiple item and warehousecombinations as a standard routing for costing purposes usingrouting maintenance. It will take into consideration the differentefficiencies that may exist within the various warehouse locationssuch as labor rates, raw materials, shipping costs, and availableequipment.

TimeSheet Professional Enhancements

The 7.0 release includes Sage TimeSheet as part of the standardSage MAS 500 package. This powerful time and expenseapplication provides an alternative for the current eTimesheetsapplication, so you can choose the time-tracking application thatbest meets your business practices. eTimesheets will continue tobe included with Sage MAS 500. The following features highlightSage TimeSheet:

ENHANCED EXPENSE TRACKING

• Resources now have the ability to enter expenses directly into aseparate Expense Sheet View entry grid without loading a dialogfrom the time entry view. The expense sheet is similar to aspreadsheet, where the rows represent tasks and the columnsrepresent dates. You can expand a task to view the expensecodes (or expense groups) associated with the task. Theintersection of each expense code row and column forms a cellto enter expenses.

• Organizations can leverage the Sage TimeSheet expenseapproval process to track and manage expense sheetsseparately from time sheets. This is convenient if yourorganization finalizes expenses and payroll for employees atdifferent times. For example, approving employee time sheetsoccurs on a weekly basis but expense sheets on a monthlybasis.

The Business Insights Explorer Preview option allows users to view related transactions from asecondary grid by passing context from the primary grid such as customer or vendor.

Sage MAS 500Accounts Payable

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©2005 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. The Sage Software logo and the Sage Software products and service names mentioned herein are registeredtrademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc., or its affiliated entities. Crystal Reports is the registered trademark and technology of Business Objects SA.All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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About Sage Software

Sage Software (formerly Best Software) offers leading business management software and

services that support the needs, challenges and dreams of more than 2.4 million small and

midsized business customers in North America. Its parent company, The Sage Group plc

(London: SGE.L), supports 4.5 million customers worldwide. For more than 25 years, Sage

Software has delivered easy-to-use, scalable, and customizable software for accounting,

customer relationship management, human resources, time tracking, and the specialized needs

of accounting practices and the construction, distribution, manufacturing, nonprofit, and real

estate industries. For more information, please visit the Web site at

www.sagesoftware.com/moreinfo or call 866-308-2378.

PROJECT-LEVEL APPROVAL PROCESS

• Project managers can now review and approve employee hours andexpenses for the projects they manage. This is especially valuable ifemployees in your organization work on multiple projects. Forexample, your organization may have a Contingency Planning projectand a Sales Analysis project. Employees in your organization maywork on both of these projects; however, each project may have adifferent project manager. Now project managers can review andapprove the number of employee hours and expenses exclusively forthe project they manage.

EXCEL-BASED REPORTING

Sage TimeSheet extends the abundant reporting and analysis capabilitiesin Sage MAS 500 by allowing you to display detail report data in apredefined Microsoft Excel worksheet (*.xls) template. Creating a reporttemplate in Excel gives you access to specialized report features, such aspivot tables or pivot charts.

Core EnhancementsAP & AR INVOICE SETTLEMENT

A new settlement facility in Sage MAS 500 Accounts Payable helps tostreamline the netting of AP and AR invoices where the vendor and thecustomer are the same company. You have the option to establish arelationship between a given vendor and one or more customers. Anew settlement entry form will display the current vendor balance inaddition to the associated customer’s balances. There is also an optionto pick specific open invoices and apply them against the vendorbalance. The posting process automatically creates the appropriatememo transactions in Sage MAS 500 Accounts Receivable and AccountsPayable.

CREATE NEW FROM EXISTING

Quickly establish a new vendor, customer, or item by basing it on an existing record. Similar functionality has been incorporated throughoutSage MAS 500 as a standard feature.

The new Expense Sheet View displays the value of each individual expense by task, as well asan expense total for each date and expense sheet period.